Here it goes! My 1st "blog"!

So much has happened in my life the last 5 years. It's too much to write about, so I'll just jump in over recent events.

I have always been very close to my dad. He's always been hot tempered, as am I, but lately it's gotten just AWFUL! He lost his job this spring and it seems as though his medication has stopped working. He was put on Prozac about 10 yrs ago and that started to lose it's effectiveness, so he was put on Lexapro. They've topped out the max dose on that, and over the last year we (my family) have noticed his outbursts and mood swings to be comming back and increasing in intensity. He's never been properly diagnosed, but I think he's bi-polar. Anyhow, a few weeks ago we spent the weekend at the lake w/ my sister and her family and my parents. As we were leaving, my niece kicked the dogs ball off the deck and into the lake and my dad just LOST IT! Started yelling (not directly at her, but at the 3 kids on the deck. My niece and my 2 daughters). I was standing near by. My oldest daughter is VERY sensitive and she immediately looked down and I could tell she was getting nervous and confused. She's never seen my dad like that and she ADORES him. So I told him he needed to calm down, it's just a ball! And he came walking towards me and got in my face and told me I needed to walk away...well I wasn't walking away from my kids! I wasn't about to leave them up on that deck w/ him all crazy so I said no, you need to walk away. He didn't like that much, and got nose to nose w/ me and told me I better go sit down "little girl" and so I went inside and told my mom to get control of him, and so she told him to calm down. I went and got my girls off the deck and we left. That's pretty much the jist of it. Fast forward 2 weeks later to my daughter's b-day party and he comes up to me there (we haven't talked since the incident) and asks me how I'm doing. Says "you know we were both wrong". (WTH?! Ummmm...NO! YOU were wrong dad!) So I say no, I wasn't wrong I was defending my kids and he says that I was wrong for yelling at him, he wouldn't have come at me like that if I didn't come at him first. All I did was tell him to calm down and that they're just kids, it's JUST A BALL!!! He started getting mad all over again!!! At my daughter's b-day party so I just said let's drop it and walked away. Then he goes to talk to my husband about it. Well all he did was put my dad in his place and tell him that I am the most important thing in his life, and that if he ever hurt me he would pay. My dad then says he's not sure if I didn't walk away that he wouldn'tve hit me!!! Then Justin said "well then my wife and kids are not allowed to be around you anymore unless I am there". So that's pretty much where we are at. My father in law and husband both had to tell him to calm down. I'm just so sad that it's come to this...and EXTREMELY frustrated w/ family right now!